BAKU: Goals from Aaron Ramsey and Connor Roberts gave Wales a 2-0 win in their Group A match over Turkey here at Baku’s Olympic Stadium on Wednesday to put them on the verge of a Euro 2020 Round-of-16 spot.
Aaron Ramsey, who had already missed two excellent chances to score, finished a superb half-volley six yards out to give Wales the lead in the match just a handful of minutes from half-time. The Juventus man was picked up by Gareth Bale with a top-drawer pass as he made another inch-perfect run, brought it down over the shoulder onto his chest, and skittered it into the bottom-left corner past Cakir.
Wales captain Gareth Bale had a chance to double the team’s lead when he was tripped by Zeki Celik and awarded a penalty, but the skipper skied up his effort towards the top-left corner.
Welsh defence held firm from then on as Turkey went for the equaliser but it was Wales who scored right at the death in injury time as Connor Roberts was all set up to place the pass by Bale past goalkeeper Ugurcan Cakir to seal the victory.
By adding a victory to their point earned against Switzerland on Saturday, Robert Page’s men are likely to reach the next round of the European Championship on Sunday.
With this victory against Turkey, only world champions France (six) have celebrated more wins across Euro 2016 and 2020 than Wales, who have now won five of their eight matches in the competition, boasting the highest winning percentage of all sides to have played at any European Championships (63 per cent).
Wales now travel to the Stadio Olimpico in Rome to face Italy in their final group game on Sunday. Turkey faces Switzerland in a must-win match in the Baku Olympic Stadium at the same time. (ANI)